The Game Called Basketball
by Arrow3ss
Summary: There was once a player who single-handedly lead Teiko to two straight championships before he had to leave. He returns to Japan three years later and is excited to see just how good his successors was. Will the Generation of Miracles measure up to his expectations? (ON HIATUS)
1. Namikaze Naruto

**DISCLAIMER:** **I do not in anyway and form own anything that I have written in this fanfiction. The characters (except for OCs) belong to their respective owners. I do not in anyway profit from this story and is only written out of pure enjoyment. I also do not own the cover image used for this story.**

For Future Reference:

"Nice game!" - Japanese

 _"Nice game!" -_ English or another language

 **Enjoy Reading!**

* * *

 **The Game Called Basketball**

* * *

"It's better if you give up on basketball. No matter what you say about effort, it's no use. To survive in today's basketball, you have to have talent. It's an undeniable fact in not just basketball but everything else as well," Kuroko stared silently at the tall redhead in front of him with a blank gaze. "You have no talent in basketball."

"Who are you to say that to someone who loves basketball just as much as you do," Kuroko turned his head towards the source of a voice and was silently shocked at the appearance of the person. "Hmm?"

The red-haired teen, Kagami Taiga, shifted his attention towards the voice, seeing a blonde male who was surprisingly taller than he was. "And who the hell are you?"

"Naruto-sen—"

"Oh, just a fellow basketball enthusiast." A grin appeared at the blonde's face. "Wanna play a game?"

Kuroko's eyes went wide-eyed at the blonde's challenge. Even if it had been a very long time since he had last seen the blonde looking at them with a huge grin, he hadn't forgotten him. It wasn't everyday a person whose talents surpassed those of the Generation of Miracle appear.

You just can't forget someone like that.

"Heh," Kagami smirked. "You're on!"

Kuroko knew that Kagami was talented, he could possibly even reach the level of his old teammates if he worked hard enough. But right now, he actually felt concerned about the redhead's confidence when this was all said and done. Namikaze Naruto was the last person you would want to have one-on-one with.

 **—TGCB—**

"Nice game!"

Kagami scowled at the blonde's remark. He was laid down at the ground, panting heavily from trying to keep with the blonde, sweat covering his entire body. "Shut up," He managed to breathe out.

The blonde smirked at Kagami's answer. "You're actually pretty good y'know. I was just better."

"That would be an understatement Naruto-senpai." Kuroko suddenly interrupted. The teal-haired teen knew how outmatched Kagami was just by playing with him earlier and even though he lost to the red-haired boy, Kuroko knew that the Kagami did not only had a disadvantage physically on his blonde senior, but in skill and experience as well. Naruto had two whole years on the two of them!

"You literally crushed him,"

Naruto grinned at Kuroko's remark. "You're just as blunt as I remembered you Tetsuya," He looked at the red-haired teen. "Although you aren't wrong on that account."

Kagami glared at the blonde, but was otherwise too tired to even retort. The blonde barely looked tired aside from the sweat dripping down his forehead and here he was heaving out like a dog. He couldn't believe that he would find someone this good in Japan.

"What are you doing here in Japan Naruto-senpai? I thought you were staying in the US for good." The question caught Kagami off-guard. So the blonde was like him?

"My mom demanded me to spend a some time with my grandparents, that and I kinda miss Japan. Although I'm only visiting right now, to file my enrollment for a school next term."

Kuroko nodded. "I see. What school will you go to? If you don't mind me asking."

Naruto just smiled at the question before staring between his two juniors. "Does Seirin ring any bells to you?"

* * *

"Wake up Naruto you lazy ass!"

"Five more minutes," Naruto managed to drawl out from his bed.

"No! You'll get up from your bed right now or you won't be getting any ramen for the rest of your stay here in Japan,"

That got the blonde up and going as he suddenly boosted himself up from his bed and standing. "That's not fair Sayuri, using my only weakness against me." He complained childishly.

"Yeah well, you better get used to it. Kushina-obasan trusted me to put you in line while she isn't here to supervise you."

"Damn it Mom, you're feeding me to the ravens here." He whispered to himself. Unfortunately, Sayuri heard him.

"I'll make sure to tell that to Kushina-obasan next time she calls."

Naruto groaned as he reached his closet and pulled out a dark orange plain shirt before turning back to the black-haired beauty that was his childhood friend. "Why did you even wake me up this early, I'm not even attending school yet."

"Hn. I just wanted to."

Naruto rolled his eyes at her answer as he removed his shirt. "Look, I know that you're angry that I came home late yesterday but I had a perfectly good explanation for that."

Sayuri flushed as she looked at her childhood friend change clothes in front of her. Did he honestly not know what he was doing to her?

"Well, I had a perfectly valid reason to worry as well you know."

"...I'm sorry for that, okay?" Naruto whispered lowly to his friend, taking a small glance at her form.

Sayuri slowly nodded, looking away from Naruto's gaze. "Okay."

A small toothy grin appeared on Naruto's face as he put on a black jeans over his current garment. "Alright then, might as well go to school with you and explore."

A light smile appeared on Sayuri's face, unknowingly making his heart skip a beat. "Let's. I'm assuming you're going to look for the basketball court?"

"You know me too well."

 **—TGCB—**

"Let's have a five versus five mini-game!" Riko Aida, the coach of Seirin's basketball team, announced. "With the freshmen against the second years!"

"A match against the senpais?"

"The senpais that managed to get to the Final League with only freshmen!"

"Seriously?! That's unfair!"

"We're going to go against them? That's completely beyond our level, right?!"

"That sounds a lot of fun!"

"Shut up you idiot."

The Seirin basketball team stared at the two outsiders—as far as they're concerned— that was bickering. They saw a tall blonde, taller than even Kagami who already towered over the most of them. As much as they loathe to think so, he was as good looking as the one he was arguing with. His blonde hair and bright blue eyes made them think that he was a foreigner but his very fluent Japanese had them second guessing.

The one the blonde was arguing with had them blushing like a grade schooler. The girl was clearly a foot shorter than the blonde although she was not _short,_ so to say. She had an extremely long hair, easily reaching to her thighs, tied into a single ponytail. Her dark black eyes was both very alluring and scary at the same time. They all knew who she was even though some them were still new to the campus. She was after all the Student Council President.

Kagami on the other hand was simmering on his place. "You!"

"Who are you again? Cagali, Kagabi, Komori..."

"It's Kagami you bastard!"

Riko recognized the black-haired girl as one of her seniors and decided to approach her instead. Said black-haired girl was palming her face in embarrassment for her friend. "Uhm, excuse me. Only members of the basketball team are allowed inside the gym. Even if you're the Student Council President, Uchiha-kaichou."

"Sorry for this Aida-san. My friend here," She pointed at Naruto who was still making fun of Kagami. "Wanted to see the basketball team of the school he was going to attend next term."

Riko's face lit up at the mention of the basketball team. She had seen her senpai's companion and she was extremely surprised and amazed at his estimated stats. "Is he interested in joining?"

"Yes. He's been playing basketball since we were five; that and his currently part of his school's team." Riko gained a curious look at that.

"If it's okay to ask, what school does he attend right now?"

Sayuri raised a brow at the question but still decided to answer the young coach's question. "He studies in America. I'm not sure what school though, but he lives somewhere in the east coast as far as I can remember."

Riko nodded at the answer with a small smile on her face. "Ah, I see. Can I ask you one last question Uchiha-kaichou?"

"Sure, but nothing private."

The caramel-haired girl nodded and glanced at Naruto. "I didn't actually catch his name exactly...?"

"His name is Namikaze Naruto. Don't let him catch you calling him by his surname though, he hates it when that happens."

Riko quirked an eye at the advice. Although she had an odd feeling that she was suppose to recognize his name but just couldn't pinpoint it. "Thanks for the advice senpai."

"No problem," Sayuri replied. The black-haired girl approached Naruto, intent on dragging him out on the court when said blonde suddenly shifted his gaze towards the young coach.

"Hey Coach-chan! Officiate the game would 'ya. I'd like to test the skills of my future teammates."

Hyuga Junpei, a bespectacled teenager and the current of the team, moved towards Riko with an inquisitive look in his face. "His either really confident in his skills or really arrogant."

"From my conversation with Uchiha-senpai, I'd say that he's really confident."

Hyuga looked at the blonde teen before looking back at Riko. "You don't say." Riko nodded. "Anyways, are you going to allow him to play with the team? He isn't even a student at the school."

"Not a student yet." Riko corrected causing Hyuga to stare at her in confusion. "You heard him yelling ago right? His going to transfer to our school for his final term in high school. Uchiha-senpai said that he already plans to join the team and I _really_ want him to join. Can't you see how tall he is? That's already an asset in itself and besides his stats with his clothes on..." She trailed off, with Hyuga not being able to hear what she was saying. "He also seems to be familiar with Kuroko which means..."

Hyuga's eyes widened at the realization. "He might have come from Teiko in his junior high."

Riko nodded as she continued to talk. "That's right. Uchiha-senpai also mentioned that he currently plays for his school in the US. And besides, if we let him play, we get to hit two birds in one shot. We see how good our freshmen are, and we see just how good he is."

Hyuga stared at Riko in a contemplative look. He couldn't refute her logic no matter what he said and, if he were to be honest to himself, he was also a bit curious at the blonde's skills. The glasses-wearing teen heaved out a slightly tired sigh. "You're right, I guess."

The caramel-haired girl gave him a small smile and nodded, "I know I am." She took off her attention from Hyuga towards the rest of the team. "All right, line-up! Freshmen's first before the second years!"

Quickly on their feet, the members of the basketball team lined-up into a single column giving a bit of a leeway to show a small aisle between the freshmen and the second years. Naruto along with Sayuri chose to stand beside Riko.

"As I mentioned earlier before Naruto-san interrupted us," She took a slight glance at Naruto who was scratching the back of his head but was otherwise grinning like nothing happened. "We're going to have a five versus five mini-game between the freshmen and the second-years."

"Uhh, hey."

Riko gave Naruto an annoyed look for being interrupted again.

"What is it now Naruto-san?"

"Can you shuffle the lineup a bit? I want to play against the best team you can make," Sayuri took that as an opportunity to punch Naruto's arms, although only lightly.

"You're lucky that you're going to get to play with them. We aren't even allowed in here in the first place so don't go ordering people around."

"That hurt you know," Sayuri rolled her eyes. "And I was only giving a suggestion."

The rest of the team stared at the duo still a bit confused on the relationship between the Kaichou and the blonde foreigner(?). They were close, that much was obvious, but how did they even know each other. They looked and acted...very differently. The second years were also trying to figure out when they had met each other. From their previous year, they knew that the Kaichou was very studious with her studies and often volunteered to help organize the school events. Maybe they met when they were younger?

Riko cleared her throat, getting the attention of the two. "What was your suggestion again Naruto-san?"

"I wanted to play against the best team you can assemble." Riko raised an eye at that. He must _really_ be confident in his skills to say that. "Also, I want Tetsuya to play in that team, Cagali too if you can allow that."

"It's Kagami!" The redhead shouted from his position.

Riko turned to Sayuri to see if she had any protests. "I can't really do anything right now, can I? It's your team so it's your call. I recommend you follow what he says though, his quite stubborn." Riko sighed at the answer. Naruto seemed to have a proud look on his face at that moment as wel.

"Okay then. Izuki, Mitobe, Hyuga-kun, Kagami and Kuroko. You guys are the first team." The five of them nodded, Kagami in particular nodded in vigor. Oddly enough, Kuroko seemed to be a bit excited.

Riko turned herself to Naruto and asked, "Naruto-san, I'll give you the option to choose your teammates."

"Thanks. I guess I'll be taking those three freshman and one of the guys over there." Naruto pointed at the three freshmen who nodded nervously.

"You can play instead of me Tsuchida."

Naruto saw the two other guys he pointed out trying to give the other chance and decided to intervene.

"How about the a coin toss?" Naruto said, getting a coin from his pocket. "Heads will be," He glanced at the one who tried giving to the Tsuchida guy.

"Koganei."

Naruto nodded before continuing, "And tails will be Tsuchida." He flicked the coin upwards which spun in the air rapidly before landing calmly on his palms. He got heads.

"You're up Koganei."

"Good luck." Tsuchida said to Koganei who nodded before sitting on the bench.

Both teams gathered around their captains', with Hyuga and Naruto being the ones respectively for each team.

"Okay first things first, tell me your names, specialties and preferred position." The blonde temporary captain stated coolly.

"Furihata Kōki. I guess I kinda specialize in supporting my teammates as I prefer to play as a point guard but I can play as a shooting guard as well if needed." Naruto nodded before staring off to another one of the freshmen.

"Kawahara Kōichi. I'd like to think my best skill is my shooting and my friends usually have me play as a forward."

"Fukuda Hiroshi. Most of the guys I play with have me play as a center because they said that I play good inside defense."

"Koganei Shinji. I'm kinda a jack-of-all-trades so I don't specialize, I usually play as a small forward."

With one last nod, Naruto introduced himself. "It's nice to meet you guys. I'm Namikaze Naruto, call me Naruto or Naruto-senpai if you like. Like Koganei, I like to call myself a jack-of-all-trades although I do prefer to facilitate with the ball on my hand. I play as a point guard in the school I go to." Naruto enjoyed the look of shock that came to their faces at the mention of him playing as point guard. The cultural and physical differences between the US and Japanese people were quite amusing at times.

"I attend a high school in the US if you're wondering on why I play the one."

"So you're like Kagami?" asked Furihata curiously.

Naruto raised a brow at the statement. "Kagami came from the US as well? Nice to know. And yes, I'm like Kagami if he came from America as well." He took a look at the other team who was also seem to be about the done with their huddle.

"For this game, do you mind sliding up the shooting guard position Kawahara?" Kawahara shook his head. "Thanks, Koganei is it alright if you took the four?"

"I'm fine with that."

"Okay then. I'll be taking the jump ball if it's okay with you Fukuda."

"It's fine Naruto-senpai."

"All right, let's go!" Naruto cheered with the his current teammates following. Hyuga and his team followed up their cheer with their own before both teams settled down gathered around the center of the court where Riko was waiting with a ball. Kagami took his place in beside Riko, staring at Naruto intenty.

"Good luck Komori," Naruto said with a smile to which Kagami responded with glare.

"Are both teams ready?" Riko asked, glancing between the two captains who both nodded. Extending her hand forward, she threw the ball upward.

Kagami jumped up first, with his hands extended as far up as he could. Just as he was about to tip the ball towards his side, a hand went pass his own and managed to tip the ball towards the direction instead.

"Tsk," Kagami said to himself.

Fukuda managed to gain possession of the ball before throwing the ball towards basket after seeing the raised hands of Naruto who was already speeding towards the paint. The freshman flinched when he saw that he overpowered his throw seeing that it was a few inches over the ring while it was still at the paint area. Naruto wasn't having any of that.

Jumping from his position, he extended his arms as far as he could and caught the ball with a vice grip before slamming it down over the ring with unmatched force.

"Incredible..." Was Riko's, no, everyone's (including Sayuri's) reaction. Riko knew just how monstrous Naruto was from just seeing an estimation of his stats but seeing the stats she saw in action was a whole different thing.

Hyuga, who was also in shock by the quick and powerful dunk, quickly snapped himself out of it before facing his teammates. "What are you doing gaping? Get your head in the game!"

That seemed to snap the rest of them from their own shocked states before running towards the other side of the court.

"Let's go defense!" Naruto shouted to his teammates. The freshmen along with Koganei nodded with energy as they guarded their marks.

Izuki brought the ball down towards their side before passing it down towards Kuroko at the right wing. Sensing the pass, Naruto quickly tracked down the ball and stole it before it even reached the halfway mark. With a quick burst of speed, he ran towards their basket ad opted to go with the classic finger roll layup. No one even manage to get past half-court.

"Damn it!" Kagami shouted in frustration.

"Keep a cool head Kagami."

"Sure, captain."

Naruto looked onto his two juniors with an amused look before running down the court to help on defense. "Show me what you got Kagami." He whispered to himself.

Izuki held the ball again at half-court, this time looking for someone else to pass to carefully. He saw Kagami calling-out for the ball while being guarded by Fukuda but saw Hyuga wide open at the corner. Just as he was about to pass to Hyuga, a dark shadow suddenly towered over him.

"Your names Izuki right?"

Izuki felt his senses suddenly tingling and held his guard up and decided to dribble defensively. "Yeah, what about it?" He asked as politely as he could.

Naruto had a smirk on his face with the question before answering. "Think fast,"

The black-haired raised his brows for a second when he suddenly felt or rather did not feel a ball bouncing up his palms. "Go Koganei!"

Izuki turned his head back and saw Koganei running towards the basket when he suddenly felt the wind pass him and saw a flash of red chasing Koganei down.

Koganei layup'ed the ball towards the basket but was denied when a hand went pass him and flicked the ball towards the glass before bouncing back towards the key.

Unfortunately for Kagami, Naruto got the rebound and was left wide open from the three point-line.

"Good work Koganei, I'll handle the rest!" Naruto gathered up his strength and shot the ball from beyond the arc.

Nothing but net.

"This is ridiculous! It's barely even thirty seconds and they're already up by seven," Riko said to herself. She thought that with Kagami and their best players that they would have at least be able to level the playing ground against the blonde, she was starting to doubt even that with how the game was going so far.

"He's still as great as I remember him," The caramel-haired girl was startled with the sudden entry of Sayuri's voice.

"I was actually wondering about that Uchiha-kaichou. Did you and Naruto-san used to go the same school as Kuroko?"

"Kuroko's the one with blue hair right?" Riko nodded. "Then yes, we did."

"So you did come from Teikou. Did Naruto-san, you know, played with the basketball team."

"I think you would be more suited to ask Naruto that but I can answer that at least,"

"Thanks. I'll do as you say later."

"Naruto used to be the captain of the basketball team, when we were in second year. But his parents suddenly had him fly to them in the states. He only just returned recently as I mentioned earlier." Riko tried to not looked shock at the revelation. He used to be the captain one of Japan's best junior high school teams. Then why didn't she recognize his name...

"I think you should focus back on the game."

Riko looked back at the game and saw the scoreboard. "What the?!"

 **17-3**

"How did that even happen? I looked away for one minute and they already doubled their lead."

"You're really lucky that I go to this school you know, Aida-san. If I hadn't been attending this school, Naruto would most likely wouldn't even be here right now."

Riko would have agreed with her without protest if she had not been in the state that she was. She was sure that even if Teppei were to come back and Kagami manages to reach the heights that she thought he could, she knew that Naruto would still dominate them if he had teammates half as good as Kagami was. His stats were nearly triple from what she saw from Kagami for god's sake! And he was showing them all why.

"You guys should utilize Tetsuya properly. If you want to even try to beat us then you have to utilize him properly." Naruto chided his frustrated-looking future teammates.

"Utilize him properly...what does he mean by that Kuroko?" Hyuga turned to the sweating blue-haired boy.

"Please pass me the ball in the next play,"

"...If you say so. You heard him Izuki?" The black-haired point guard nodded.

Izuki, with Furihata defending him, was trying to look for any openings in the lane but unfortunately couldn't. They were closing down any openings immediately with Naruto directing them with utmost confidence. They're defense were tight and good especially with Naruto being capable of reaching out for their passes with his long wing span, it made it harder for him to pass the ball without turning it over.

The point guard saw Hyuga managing to get free and open to his left wing and immediately passed the ball to him. But then Naruto's hand suddenly shadowed over the ball, making him slightly pale. Suddenly, the ball disappeared.

 _"Nice pass!"_ Kagami didn't know how it happened but the ball suddenly landed in his hands and freed himself up to elevate for his most probably favorite type of shot.

The Slam Dunk.

"Now this is what I'm talking about! Nice work there Tetsuya, Cagali!"

"How many am I suppose to tell you that my names Kagami," The redhead growled out as he ran back towards the opposite side of the court.

Both teams then went on to exchanging buckets before the quarter ended with Hyuga's team managing to slim down the lead to a respectable three points with the help of Kuroko's new found ability and the firepower of the both Kagami and Hyuga.

 **31-28**

"It amazes me on how lucky we are to be able to get three amazing players this year. Granted that Naruto-san is set to join us most probably during the Winter Cup."

"Like I said earlier, the reason why Naruto is attending Seirin in the first place was because I attend this school as well."

Riko could only nod at Sayuri's statement, her mind racing about all the possibilities especially when Teppei returns and Naruto joins them.

Meanwhile, Naruto and his team approached Hyuga's team with a smile on his face.

"That was a great quarter you guys!"

Hyuga decided to talk with the blonde and said, "I'm more amazed by how monstrous you are. Coach said that you played for your high school in the US but I didn't know you were that good."

Those who didn't know of that small tidbit was shocked to say the least. "Heh, it's not like I'm the only one here who played in America, am I right Kagami." Kagami's eyes widened by the sudden attention on him, not noticing the lack of wrongness on how Naruto addressed him. While the team already knew that Kagami went to America in his middle school, they were interested on how he would react.

"Uh..Yeah, your right."

"What school do you go to anyway Naruto-san?" Izuki asked.

"You guys know Oak Hill Academy?" Most of the team shook their heads, except for Kagami. He knew exactly what the rep of the school was.

 _"Holy..."_

Naruto smirked at Kagami's reaction before bidding an excuse to go and waving at them as he and his team follow him back to their side of the court. "Oh well. See 'ya later on the court then."

Kuroko looked at the Naruto and waited till he was out of earshot before looking at his own teammates with serious face. "We should prepare for the next quarter. Naruto-senpai is going to take us seriously now that he more or less scouted out your skills."

"Wait, what are you talking about Kuroko? Wasn't he serious already during the first quarter?"

Kuroko shook his head as a response, making them pale at the implications of what he was saying.

"Naruto-senpai is on a whole other level. He made my teammates back in Teikou look like they really were middle schoolers playing against professional players. He's _that_ good. And his most likely going to lock me down, now that he's used to my presence again."

Hyuga looked Kuroko with a bit of panic etched on his face. "What are we suppose to do then? We were barely even competing against him before we managed to exploit your skill but now his somehow going to elevate his game and guard you at the same time?"

 _ **Thud.**_

Kuroko, Izuki, Mitobe and Hyuga all looked in surprise at Kagami who printed his fists on the wall. "What are you guys doing getting all worked up for! As basketball players, this is what we all play for. The challenge of beating people who are much better than you are. Where's your sense of pride as a player?!"

Kuroko stared blankly at Kagami before shaking his head. "I understand what you're talking about Kagami-kun. But you also have to understand where I'm coming from. Naruto-senpai is in a whole different plane of existence when it comes to basketball. Being one of the Generation of Mircales is the closest that you can get to him without being a pro."

"Alright both teams return to court!" The sound of the whistle cut their conversations and had them returning to court. The lack of planning had Hyuga and the two other second years worrying even though it was only a practice game.

"Let's go this game started," Kuroko grimaced at that. This was going to be a long quarter for them.

 **—TGCB—**

The heavy panting of the Seirin's strongest five was prominent to all of the on-watchers in the court. They were all shocked at how fast the momentum of the game switched as soon as the quarter started and it carried through the entire quarter. If it hadn't been a practice game, it would have probably broken their spirits. To be beaten by a bunch of freshmen, Koganei and of course the monster that was Namikaze Naruto in the manner that they did was something they did not want to experience again.

Riko was still looking at the scoreboard, shocked by the sudden turn of events. She had thought that Hyuga and the others had managed to find a game plan to keep up with Naruto and the freshman (plus Koganei) but she was wrong. The blonde was in fact the one who was feeling them out and the scoreline showed it.

 **73 - 34**

"I can't believe this, they barely even held the ball. I'm glad he didn't choose to go to another school." She mumbled to herself.

"Told you," Sayuri said beside her, a haughty smirk on her face.

"'Sup ladies, what are you talking about?" Both Riko and Sayuri was startled by the hand suddenly on their shoulders.

Sayuri turned to her childhood friend, "Aida-san mentioned how lucky Seirin was to have gotten you."

Naruto gave out a hearty laugh. "I guess she can thank you and my mom for that,"

"I guess so."

"Anyways, Coach-chan thanks for the game. I had a lot of fun with them. Train them nicely you'll go far on your next tournament before I return."

Riko was snapped from her thoughts by Naruto's gaze on her as she flushed a little of being caught deep in her thought. "Ah, yeah. I'll make sure to whip them up to shape so they won't lose to you next time you return."

Naruto laughed at that good-naturedly. "I'll be looking forward to that then. _Ciao!"_

"His part-Italian." Sayuri told Riko before following his friend out of the court and left the caramel-haired girl to wonder if the student council president was serious.

* * *

"When will you actually go back to the States Naruto?" The blonde looked at her friend as they walked through the corridors of the school. A number of students was actually whispering about them being that the beautiful student council president of the school was walking with a tall, gorgeous foreign-looking teenager with her. The two them silently agreed to ignore the murmurings.

"I'm going to return next week. My papers are about done anyway."

Sayuri noted the smile on Naruto's face as he said that. She held herself from flushing a bright pink from seeing just how good-looking her friend had become in the past few years. And that smile of his...

"I guess we have one week to help you familiarize yourself with the area before you go."

"Yup." Naruto said, popping the 'p' sound at the end. "I'm actually really excited to play in the Winter Cup that you mentioned. Can't wait to see how those little kouhai's of ours improved."

"You barely even played with them remember?"

"Still, I want to see why they were given there name. Last time I played them, they were still a bit raw."

Naruto saw Kuroko in the classroom they just passed by and decided to talk with him before leaving. "Hey Tetsuya! You got here fast."

Kuroko turned from his seat and saw his blonde senpai waving at him from the door. He lifted himself from his seat, though a bit slowly as he was still a bit sore from the earlier game against the blonde, and approached him. "Good Morning Naruto-senpai, Uchiha-kaichou." He greeted. "I thought it would have for the best if I came to class as soon as possible or might not be able to later on." Naruto nodded at that, knowing his logic behind it.

Sayuri stared at the two, more on Naruto really, while they were conversing. She remembered the times they spent playing with each other before, during their grade school and during their two years at Teikou together. She remembered being really angry at Naruto when he told him he was going to leave for the states during the summer before their third year in junior high.

They've been only able to communicate with each other through the internet although Naruto did visit Japan once during her third year. That's when he met for the first time the people who replaced his role in the basketball team. A group of five—six if you ask the right people— basketball geniuses that stormed through the Japanese Basketball scene. They were, without fail, called the strongest. A group of players with talents that could only be seen once every ten years.

The Generation of Miracles.

But Sayuri knew that Naruto's talents exceeded even theirs—the Generation of Miracles. And in a few months, the whole of Japan will know too as well. One of the brightest and best basketball players the world will ever meet.

Namikaze Naruto.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

With the Champions League all but over and the NBA Finals was only just starting to heat up, I was suddenly swept by a strong urge to write down a basketball story. This was the result.

And yes, Sayuri is fem!Sasuke. I always wanted to try that and found a great opportunity to use it here. She's kinda OOC though. Same goes for Naruto but there's bound to be changes to their personalities with the circumstances and all.

I'd also like to inform you ahead that I'll be referring each character differently. I may use their first name or I might use their surname. It depends on the character, like Riko (First Name) and Hyuga (Surname) for example.

Anyways, if you have any other questions, you could ask in a review or a PM and in my forum. Check out my profile for the link to the forum.


	2. Pre-Winter Cup 1

**DISCLAIMER: (See Chapter 1)**

 **DISCLAIMER #2:** **I do not own the NBA or am I affiliated to the league or any teams or players from it.**

 **Enjoy Reading!**

 **(Unedited; Un-beta'd)**

* * *

"We would like to request for all passengers to please turn off all their electronic and mobile devices. We are approaching Narita Airport. Thank you for your consideration."

A tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed teen turned off his laptop as the English translation of the advisory went on. Naruto took out a jacket from his duffel bag and slew it over him, he was already feeling pretty cold despite still being in the plane.

"They've all improved I see." He whispered to himself. "Although it was kinda disappointing to see that Tetsuya and the others lost that much against Daiki's team. They even lost to those other teams despite having Tetsuya. Guess I have my work cut out for me, I wonder if Coach-chan is okay if I train them with her."

Naruto briefly wondered at the thought as he waited for the plane to land. From what he watched, he knew that despite of Riko's training regiment and skills as a trainer, it would not be enough to beat the big teams that had his supposed successors despite having Kuroko and Kagami. Their match against Shutoku showed that despite their win, it was a very narrow one wherein they kept relying on Kagami's ability to defend Midorima.

And then they were exposed by Tōō.

While their offense was not lacking, Seirin's defense has much to be desired. It wasn't too obvious during the other matches where their fast-paced offense would dominate most of their opponents but when they faced a team that had as much fire power as they had and is much more defensive than they were, Naruto knew that Seirin would have tough time against that. The demolition they received from Tōō was a prime example.

Either way, he knew that the Winter Cup would be a different story altogether.

"We have arrived at Narita International Airport. Thank you for flying with us."

The blonde grinned at the announcement.

Naruto Namikaze was back in Japan.

 **—TGCB—**

Sayuri looked at the mirror again to check for any imperfections on her dress before a small frown appeared on her face.

"Why am I even trying to look _good._ Naruto doesn't care for that." She told herself as she looked at the make-up kit in her bag that her mother forced on her to bring. She rarely uses it, only during events or occasions and even then her mother had to all but blackmail her to use it. She blamed the blonde idiot that was her childhood friend on that.

Swiftly removing it from her bag, she hid it inside one of the drawers of her desk, underneath one of her school books. She definitely wasn't going to use it now.

Sayuri went out of her room, mulling over some thoughts about her friend and school as she went down the stairs. She grabbed her keys, one was a duplicate for the small apartment that Naruto will be using and the other the keys to her own home. She opened the door to the outside before briefly remembering to inform her mother.

"I'm going to fetch Naruto now Kaa-san, I'll be back later!" She shouted before closing the door.

The black-haired teen felt a vibration coming from her small bag and saw that it was her phone. She took out the small black form of the mobile device before taking a glance at the screen.

It was a message from Naruto.

 _Just arrived at the airport. See you soon._

A smile adorned her face as she wrote back a reply.

* * *

Naruto was waiting by a small cafe near the airport that Sayuri had suggested to meetup at.

He was currently staring at the screen of his laptop, reviewing the videos of the games Seirin played that he had Sayuri send over to him.

"Seirin's offense is pretty good, especially when compared to the energy they exert on a half-court defense. But their offense is mainly dependent on Kuroko's distributing skills and misdirection, and Kagami's ability to dominate his match-up. That isn't good for the long run."

It was a cold analysis but it was the truth. Kagami's ability to dominate the paint was the soul of the team while Kuroko's passing the heart. Without either one them, they wouldn't even stand a chance against the Generation of Miracles, especially when you consider just how good their teams were even before they had one of the Miracles.

That's not to say that Seirin wasn't any good in their own rights. He did remember Sayuri mentioning that they managed to get to the final league of the Interhigh before the actual tournament during the previous year. But from the footage he got, they had that Iron Heart player that he once played with during his days at Teikō and he did not see him when he first visited.

"Naruto! Hey Naruto! I'm here already you airhead!" Naruto blinked at the hand waving in-front of him.

"Sorry about that." He said as he removed the earphones from his ears. "So when did you get here Sayuri?"

"Just a minute ago but I guess you were to busy staring out in space to actually notice. Not that I would expect anything better coming from you."

Naruto deadpanned at the remark. "Gee, thanks for the very warm welcome."

"Hn. You're very much welcome Namikaze-san." Naruto rolled his eyes at the reply but decided not to comment. Instead, he observed the very un-Sayuri-like clothes that Sayuri was wearing. He rarely saw her wearing skirts aside from the ones for the school uniform and he was pretty sure that that didn't change while he was at the US. An impish grin appeared on his face.

"That's a cute outfit you're wearing there Sayuri. I wonder why..." His brows wiggled suggestively, as was the tone of his voice. Sayuri flushed a deep red on her cheeks and suddenly looked away from Naruto's face.

"Shut-up you ball-headed idiot. Let's go already." Sayuri approached Naruto, still not looking-up to his face, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, albeit stretching a bit to reach it, and started dragging him out of the cafe.

"Hey! My stuff! I haven't gotten them yet!"

* * *

There was only about a month and two weeks left before the preliminaries for the Winter Cup finally starts and Riko Aida currently sitting by the bench beside the court. She was holding a slightly stacked folder with papers, all filled with schemes, tactics and schedules to be followed and practiced for the following few weeks. But none of those papers were related to what she was currently reading on her phone.

 **Naruto Namikaze, still consensus #1 H.S. Basketball**

 **Player in the Country**

For the second consecutive year, Naruto Namikaze, a half Japanese and part American-Italian, once again sweeps the awards for the nation's best male High School Basketball player. Namikaze first stormed the American Basketball scene a year ago, when he started as a freshmen, and since then has been dominating High School Basketball. Many experts believe that with the skill set he currently possess, he can easily go as a Top 3 pick in the next draft if he were to enter...

"This is unbelievable..." Riko whispered in amazement. She knew just how great Naruto was as a basketball player, heck she already knew that he was possibly levels above the Generation of Miracles from the last time he visited. But this was ridiculous.

Earlier in the week, she tried looking up Naruto on the web and was really surprised when she got a lot of hits. While she was a fan of the sport, she only really followed the NBA when it came to international leagues as it was obviously the best basketball league a basketball player could join. And that was why she had never heard of his name before the time he visited a few months ago.

"What are you reading there coach?"

Riko looked up to Izuki who was the one who asked the question. "I don't think my words would be enough to describe it," She handed him her phone which Izuki took hesitantly. "I think it'll be better if you read that first." Hyuga nodded slowly before he started scrolling down the article his eyes widening as he read further.

"What the?! Is this for real?!"

Riko nodded. "It is. Try searching him up on the web. He even has his own page on Kiwipedia."

"Damn." Was Izuki's only response as he continued to read the article.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"The tall blonde that's supposedly join us this coming Winter Cup. You know, Uchiha-kaichou's friend." Riko answered.

Koganei hearing the description of the person decided to join the conversation between Izuki, Hyuga and the coach. "You mean Naruto-senpai?"

"Yeah, him. Show them Izuki." The point guard nodded before showing them the phone.

"Woah."

"Yeah, I kinda had a similar reaction." Izuki commented as the two second years read the article with an intrigued expression on their faces.

"I can't believe we're going to get a player of his caliber to join our team, even if it's only for one tournament. We're lucky enough to have Kuroko and Kagami as it is."

Riko seemed to agree with what Hyuga had said as she nodded strongly at it. "The experience will be invaluable. It's not everyday you get to play with players who's actually heavily scouted by every single NBA team while at high school. He's even projected to go top 3 in the next NBA draft if he were to enter the coming summer."

The ones who were simply listening had their mouths agape at what the caramel-haired girl just said. Naruto-senpai was amazing!

"Speaking of Kagami and Kuroko, where are they anyway?" Hyuga asked as he noticed that the two of them were not present for the practice. And while he was at it, he also noticed that the other freshmen and Teppei who just returned a month ago wasn't there as well. "Also, where the hell are other freshmen and Kiyoshi?"

Izuki was the one to answer as he looked at Riko and Hyuga. "Oh, that! Kawahara messaged me and said that he and the other freshmen were going to join a nearby Street Basketball tournament so they won't be able to attend practice today. He also mentioned that Kiyoshi was going to join them."

Hyuga raised a brow at that but responded. "Really? Kuroko, Kagami and all of the freshmen along with Kiyoshi are going to play? They won't lose easily then."

Riko shook her head in amusement. "Sheesh, those guys."

* * *

Naruto was a bit curious at what the result of the game would be. He was with Sayuri, who came with him after already accompanying him back to his house, and was waiting for the streetball match between Seirin's freshmen plus a guy who looked really familiar and a person who seem to be old friends with Kagami along with one his suppose-to-be kouhai in Teikō, Murasakibara.

While they waited, he silently snickered to himself as he remembered the flustered expression on Sayuri's face once they arrived at his home for a few months earlier during the day. She quickly excused herself back to her house that was only a few meters away and returned with a completely different set of outfit. Ah, the teasing that ensued after that was fun. It was great to know that geniuses like Sayuri could still be so emotional like she was awhile ago.

He himself had changed outfits as well, going with a more casual combo of a plain orange shirt, a dark blue cargo short and a pair of orange sneakers. Sayuri, as he observed earlier, chose to wear her usual dark blue jeans coupled with a dark red shirt and a pair of clean dark blue canvas shoes.

"It actually didn't past my mind that there would be such an entertaining match like this one when I suggested we go here." Naruto murmured to the black-haired Uchiha.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here Naruto. The match hasn't even started yet."

Naruto shook his head playfully as he responded. "With Cagali, Tetsuya and Atsushi there, this is bound to be an interesting match." Sayuri made an annoyed gesture at the blonde before looking at the court from their place, which was pretty much the furthest place possible for watchers.

"It seems that Atsushi won't be doing anything but defend." Naruto made that conclusion after seeing the purple-haired teen simply stand around the hoop.

"Hmm. He was the best defender of the team during their tenure at Teikō if I remember right."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "He has a huge frame, he's even taller than me. I remember him being a bit agile for his size and has fast reflexes, and that wingspan of his. He also has the brute strength to bully his match-ups with little to no problem. He just needs to develop a post game. All the clips that you've sent me just shows him dunking over players and shooting some jumpers every now and then. If he does, I don't think anyone would be able to stop him at the block. Aside from me of course."

Sayuri rolled her eyes at the last part but decided not to comment on it. "Just out of curiosity, have you played with guys like Murasakibara's size in the US?"

"Yeah, there's a lot of them actually. Though only a bare few of them are as agile and talented as Atsushi."

Sayuri nodded at his answer as they both continued to watch the match silently.

Naruto raised a brow as he saw the one named Himuro, if he heard correctly, shoot a very smooth jump shot. "That was a sweet jumper. Kinda reminds me of _H20_ back in his prime." Naruto remarked.

"That's impressive."

"It is." Naruto agreed.

His eyes trailed the ball as it went to Kuroko who quickly dished out an extremely fast pass towards his running teammate who Naruto could have sworn looked familiar. "...Is that Iron Heart?"

"Yeah, from what I heard from Aida-san he just recently returned from an injury last month."

"Oh! So that's why he wasn't there when I played with the team. I remember playing against him during middle school. High basketball IQ and a great hustler. Also has a nice post game for a middle schooler back then. He was quite a passionate player as well if I remember correctly. I think I'm going to enjoy playing with him."

Sayuri simply nodded as she did remember him as well back then. She did make it a point to watch every official game Naruto played during those days. Her musings was interrupted when she suddenly felt a bit wetness touching her cheeks.

"Is it raining?" She lifted her head and looked towards the sky and saw a few layers of dark clouds hovering above them as drops of water suddenly started falling from the sky.

"Shit! You have an umbrella with you Sayuri?"

Sayuri shook her head. "I didn't bother bringing one. It was pretty hot when we left your house."

"Good thing I brought one then. Come on, let's leave and take a cab back to the station."

"Aren't you going to finish the match?"

"That's dumb. With a weather like this it's sure to be postponed."

Sayuri's twitched at the jab but chose to keep her cool. "Alright then smartypants. Let's go."

"Hey! I'm smart!"

"Try telling that when you don't have to get tutored by me in almost every single subject." The raven-haired girl replied coolly.

"Shut up," Naruto grumbled at that fact. It wasn't his fault that he wasn't as academically gifted as her. Although he couldn't tell her she didn't a good job as he did get top grades from her tutoring even while they were faraway from each other —the internet was nifty like that.

 **—TGCB—**

"Ah damn, my clothes are all wet now!"

"Does anyone still have a dry towel?"

"I really hate rainy days!"

While the others were complaining, Kuroko was internally debating on whether or not the tall blonde he had seen back at the Street Basketball tournament was Naruto-senpai. While he was ninety-five percent sure that the it really was the blonde senior, there was still a small chance that it was only a random foreigner who had decided to watch the tournament. It might even had been Kise for all he knew.

"That was a bit of an unpleasant encounter back there Kuroko. You and him in bad terms?" Kuroko was cut from his musings with Kagami's question as he looked at the redhead in surprise.

"Nothing of the sort."

"Huh?"

Kuroko grabbed a towel from his bag as he dried his hair before answering. "I actually like him as a person. We just don't get along when it comes to basketball. The main reason being is that he doesn't enjoy playing basketball at all."

The other freshmen and Kiyoshi looked at Kuroko curiously, wondering how one of the Generation of Miracles really didn't enjoy playing basketball. "He only started playing basketball when his peers invited him back in grade school because he was tall. He started playing Center since then but he didn't like playing basketball one bit. Unfortunately he was a genius at it, got better without having any motivation and improved by doing things his way."

Kagami and Kiyoshi looked at Kuroko solemnly, while the others seemed to be shocked at the story. Kuroko continued, "Even though basketball failed to grow on him, his talent as a player was just too overwhelming to ignore. And, with the way he thinks, which is that he can be good at something that he doesn't even like then those _'untalented ones'_ who loves the game are just wasting their time. He hates them with a passion."

"He's a bit unfair. Although I was like that when I first met you, that blonde bastard senpai of ours taught me a lot of things when it comes to baskeball and that changed my perception of the game." The rest of the group looked at Kagami at his reaction of Kuroko's story. Kuroko nodded at that.

"Perhaps the way he trashed all of us back then made us more humble but I don't think talent alone can make you the winner at any given game. With Hard work, passion and the love for the game. That was how Naruto-senpai played basketball. That's difference between him the Generation of Miracles. Our difference to them." Kuroko paused as he tidied up his outfit. "So that's why I think that if we give our best to something that we love, we'll enjoy it all the more when we attain victory. Because we worked hard for it."

Kuroko looked at all his teammates, aside from Kagami who was trying to play it cool, who were smiling at what he said before speaking again. "I love basketball, and I love Seirin where everyone loves basketball."

"Hmm?" Kagami felt his phone vibrating from his pocket eliciting him to get it. "Haa?"

"What's up Kagami?" Furihata asked.

"The coach is telling us to get back to school,"

"Huh? But isn't it a Sunday. Why?"

Kagami groaned, having no idea as well.

"We should probably just go." Kuroko stated monotonously.

Kiyoshi walked-up in front of the group before raising his hands. "Yosh! Let's get back!"

The freshmen followed Kiyoshi's lead as they entered the station, unknowing of the presence of a blonde and black-haired eavesdropper.

"That was an interesting speech," He told more to himself more than Sayuri. The bit about Murasakibara's basketball background had him think for a bit. The fact that the big man held no love for basketball was a bit disconcerting but his talent was undeniable. But nonetheless, playing against an opponent like that was a bit _un-fun._ He'll just have to change that line of thought of Murasakibara's in the court.

"Hn. I think you made more motivational speeches back then, that was your specialty after all."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders at the comment, knowing that it was true. He made a pretty good captain if he does say so himself. He did lead Teikō to multiple championships back then.

He faced Sayuri as he took out his umbrella from his bag. "Wanna take another cab directly to home?"

"Yeah, whatever."

Naruto smiled at the blunt answer.

"Let's go then."

* * *

The peeking rays of the sun and the sound of Sayuri's shouting woke up the teen from his slumber. Naruto took a quick look at the alarm clock at his desk only to find that it wasn't there. He rubbed his eyes groggily and stood up from his bed. He saw the alarm clock sprawled at the floor but heeded it no mind as he made his way towards the door of the room.

Entering the kitchen, he saw Sayuri sitting by the table munching on a piece of tomato. "Morning Sayuri. What brings you here this early?"

"To wake you up of course. Knowing you, unless you have a game you'll wake up late."

"That's true." Sayuri found the lack of protest of Naruto slightly interesting and disturbing.

She watched in comfortable silence as Naruto cooked himself some breakfast. She briefly recalled the days when they would have this kind of mornings when they were younger. Not much changed from back then, aside from the obvious physical changes, although she did wonder on what else Naruto had learned in the US aside from the ones they talked about online.

"You want some eggs?" He offered, extending his plate of eggs and bacon towards her. She noted the choice of food that he dished out for breakfast were more of a western culture.

Sayuri shook her head. "I'm good," She said, raising her piece of tomato slightly before taking a bite out of it.

"More for me then." Naruto quickly cleared his plate a minute later and stood from his seat.

"I'll be taking a bath, you going to wait here?"

"Yeah." She idly answered while she stared out the window near the door. It was still pretty dark outside, for the time at least.

"Don't go peeking on me then,"

"In your dreams you idiot."

 **—TGCB—**

"I wonder if I should eat ramen for dinner..."

"You know what I still don't understand? How you grew up that tall with eating so much of those unhealthy noodles of yours."

"Don't diss the ramen Sayuri. It just might diss you back. And for your information," Sayuri rolled her eyes with how Naruto was raising a finger at her as if he was lecturing her. "I eat a lot of vegetables and meat as well. That and I have awesome genes."

"Whatever." Naruto stuck out his tongue at the black-haired beauty's reply.

The two of them, Naruto and Sayuri, were actually making there merry way towards the basketball court as both seniors had already finished for the day. It had been an eventful day for both —more frustrating for Sayuri really— as a lot of people had been talking to and about them. There were already rumors about the two of them dating to which Sayuri had vehemently denied. Naruto on the other hand had simply chosen to stay away from the topic and not say anything whenever it was brought up. The teasing material that he could use on Sayuri with the rumors was practically gold.

"Seems like the team is already there. I hear a lot of dribbling sounds coming from inside." The two teens approached the entrance at snail's pace, enjoying the company of each other before going in the court.

Entering the court, Naruto saw the team having a scrimmage. He, along with Sayuri, walked towards the direction of Riko who was observing the team's play.

"Interesting. So that's your starting lineup, eh Coach-chan?"

"Huh...wuh...Naruto-san? You're here already?! So the rumors were true."

"What rumors?" He asked innocently even though he actually he knew.

Riko averted the sight of his gaze as she tried looking at Sayuri instead. "Ah—it's nothing. Anyways, Uchiha-kaichou when did Naruto-san arrive here?"

"I'm right here y'know." Both Riko and Sayuri ignored him, causing him to pout.

"Yesterday actually. I had to fetch him at the airport."

"Ah. So the other rumors _were_ true as well."

Sayuri narrowed her eyes. "What rumors?"

Riko trailed her eyes towards Naruto's form before returning to Sayuri. "It's nothing Uchiha-kaichou."

"Hn."

Naruto decided to interrupt before the conversation got anymore dangerous as it was. "Ookay, I heard that you guys got eliminated during the final league of the preliminaries for the Interhigh. What happened there?" While he had a slight inkling to what happened to the team after their demolition under Aomine's team, it would be better if he heard from Riko's mouth directly.

Riko on the other hand gained a small grimace as she tilted her head slightly to ground. "The team was...discouraged after the game against Tōō. After the game against you we thought that we wouldn't be beaten so badly, so shamelessly as what happened back then. We thought we were ready for anything but Tōō's talent was just too overwhelming as a whole."

Naruto stared silently as he listened to her explanation. He was beginning to piece-out the reason for their collapse during the final league and he wasn't going to allow it happen again. Not if he had anything to do about it.

He gestured her to continue and whispered lowly but softly, "Go on."

"Afterwards, with Kagami's injury, the team seemed to have lost the will to battle on as we subsequently lost the next two games. We're okay now though. And this time we want to win it all, that's the promise we made to each other this time. And with you and Teppei now here to play with us, it would be an absolute embarrassment if we were to lose isn't it, Mr. National Player for two straight years."

Naruto stifled a hearty laugh at the mention of the award he received during the last two years. Too bad he won't be able to sweep all three years since he was going to stay at Japan for the majority of the remaining season. "So you heard about that?" He asked brightly as he scratched the back of his neck.

"I was beginning to wonder when you guys would try to search Naruto up." Sayuri commented.

"Yeah. The whole team knows now and we were really surprised. To think that a Japanese would be able to dominate basketball players in the mecca of basketball with such a clear cut margin. I don't think even the Generation of Miracles would be able to do what you did without struggling a bit Naruto-san."

"You flatter me Coach-chan. I didn't do much."

"So now you choose to be humble. Hypocrite," Naruto didn't take offense to Sayuri's remark and simply chose to play along with it.

"Hey! I resent that! I happen to be the epitome of humility." Riko observed the interaction between the two and wondered if there was any truth behind the rumors about the two seniors. Her wanderings were snapped as she saw Hyuga and the rest of the team going towards their direction. It seems that they've already finished the scrimmage without her knowing.

"Coach! We're done with the scrimmage." Hyuga approached the trio, before greeting the other two. "Uchiha-kaichou, Naruto...-san?"

Naruto beamed at the bespectacled captain along with the rest of the team who was just behind him, mouths agape and eyes wide." What's up guys? I'm back."

* * *

 **OMAKE**

 **After returning home from the Tournament**

"I'm home!"

The smiling face of Mikoto Uchiha greeted Sayuri as she entered their living room. "Welcome home Sayuri, how was your date with Naruto-kun?" Mikoto's smile grew bigger as her daughter's face suddenly turned a bright red.

"I-it wasn't a date Kaa-san! I was only accompanying him!"

"Are you sure?"

"Oh don't butt in Nii-san! And I'm sure. Knowing that idiot, he'll probably get lost if I didn't guide him, he isn't too familiar with Tokyo after all."

"That's an awfully convenient excuse you have there, Sayuri."

Sayuri groaned as her father, Uchiha Fugaku of all people also joined-in in teasing her. "Not you as well Tou-san."

The Uchiha family, sans Sayuri, laughed at the only daughter of the family's embarrassment. "I hate all of you." She whispered to herself. Unfortunately her brother heard her.

"Oh, so you hate us now? Ran out of love because of giving it all _Naruto-kun_ then?" He said in a teasing tone that frustrated Sayuri to no end. It was like having three Naruto's around her!

"Gah! Fine you guys be that way!" The black-haired teen stormed out of the living room and went upstairs to her room. The trio heard Sayuri slam down her door before an awkward silence permeated the three.

"You think we went too far?" Mikoto asked.

"Too far." The father-son simultaneously agreed.

Mikoto nodded her head although she held a mischievous glint on her eyes, "I'll go talk to her then."

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Here it is folks! Not much basketball action this chapter.

Anyways, quick question. Who would you prefer to remove from the starting line-up and become the 6th man of the team? Or should Naruto be the 6th man? _OR_ should I just rotate and twist the line-up according to the opponent? I'll putting up a poll in my profile and it will be closed by the time the next chapter is posted.

P.S. Kiwipedia = Wikipedia. Has nothing to do with the people from New Zealand whatsoever.

 _*H20 = Allan Houston. Look him up on Youtube, has one of the most smoothest jumpers you'll ever see._


	3. Pre-Winter Cup 2

**DISCLAIMERS: (See Chapters 1 and 2)**

 **Enjoy Reading!**

 **(Unedited; Un-beta'd)**

* * *

"I heard from Sayuri and Coach-chan that you sustained a serious injury last year Iron Heart,"

"Please, Naruto-senpai you can call me Kiyoshi or Teppei. We've been playing together for more than a month now."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the deliberate avoidance of the topic. "Fine. But you still haven't answered me though."

Kiyoshi resisted the urge to heave out a sigh at the persistence of his blonde senior and simply relented. He knew from the past few weeks that Naruto would not stop until he got what he wanted and that blonde knew ways to persuade him or Riko to tell the half-Japanese the story behind his injury. "I guess I'll have to tell you then, the reason why I was in the hospital for more than a year."

Naruto simply nodded.

Kiyoshi stared at the ball on his hands as he recalled the events of the previous year. "It was during the Interhigh prelims finals last year, when we played against Kirisaki Daīchi. We were actually playing a good, clean match against them but it was towards the end of the game that I got injured. One of the Uncrowned Kings, Hanamiya," Naruto's eyes narrowed at the mention of the name but said nothing. He'd heard of the dirty exploits that Hanamiya had done during their middle school but Teikō hadn't exactly played against them during his stay so he had no first hand experience to prove it.

"Was suddenly subbed-in near the end after not playing the whole game. He wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary or suspicious but then during that one play when I went for a rebound, my match-up jumped too late and landed _hard_ on my knees. After that I remember being carried-out of the game and Hyuga confronting Hanamiya."

There was a brief silence between the two before Naruto spoke up. "Do you think it was on purpose, you injury I mean."

Kiyoshi looked at the ground, dropping the ball as he did. "I...Yes, it was." The center finally said with a hesitant low tone.

"I see..." Kiyoshi stared at the tall blonde as he picked up the ball he dropped. "Do you know why I agreed to return to Japan?"

Kiyoshi didn't know what Naruto was trying to say and where he was going to go with it so he slowly shook his head. "No. Not really."

Naruto dribbled the ball with one hand stuck to his back and did single-handed crossovers and maneuvers with it. "I actually came here because of three reasons," He caught the ball with both of his hands and shot it from the three-point line. "The first is because I missed Japan and wanted to meet-up with my grandparents again. The second one is kinda personal but I'll tell you anyways, to show you my gratitude for your honesty."

The blonde walked towards the ball's direction and picked it up before passing it to Kiyoshi who caught it with a single hand. "The second is because of Sayuri." Kiyoshi's eyes widened slightly at the revelation but kept silent. "The last is because I wanted to play against the Generation of Miracles. The supposed absolute geniuses that came to the Japanese basketball scene when I left. I wanted to test their mettle, their skill. But most of all, I wanted them to enjoy basketball again, just as what Tetsuya wanted."

"What does that have to do with what happened to my injury?" The passing center couldn't help but ask. He was really confused with the direction the conversation was going to.

"From what I heard from your story and the ones I heard during middle school, Hanamiya doesn't enjoy basketball the way you and I do, slightly similar to the current mindset of the Generation of Miracles. He's a sadist, he enjoys the suffering that people like us, who love basketball, incur. That's why when we face his team, I want you to put your whole trust into me."

"...Why?"

"Basketball is suppose to be something that a person enjoys, not something someone uses to make others suffer. I'll destroy him in the court, where he thinks he's most dangerous. He won't be doing that stuff again to others, never again. That's a promise."

 **—TGCB—**

Kuroko silently watched as Kagami bounced the orange basketball on the pavement. He and the redhead were on their way to the team's basketball court after having finished their Math examinations half an hour ago.

It had been five weeks since Naruto had arrived, five weeks since the grueling training regiment that the blonde and Riko developed begun. The teal-haired teen and the rest of Seirin's basketball team felt that they had all grown in different facets of the game, especially their defense, under the supervision of America's top high school basketball player and the strict Riko Aida.

They entered the gym and saw Kiyoshi shooting a ball from the three point line with Naruto hanging around the ring, possibly to get the ball for either a rebound or just to pass it back to the Center. The rest of team was running around the court, lead by the hazel-haired coach.

"Tetsuya! Cagali! How was your Math exams?"

"Ugh. Don't remind me of that exam." Kagami groaned out, not even reacting to how Naruto called him. Naruto guessed that Kagami probably did really bad.

"I think I did fine." Kuroko droned with his signature monotonous tone.

"Well that's good. We're going to have offensive drills today, as suggested by Coach-chan. So you guys better get ready and warm-up."

Both Kuroko and Kagami nodded as they went to the locker room to change to their practice attire. Soon enough they joined the rest of the team that was running.

Naruto looked at the stopwatch clasped on his hands as the team circled for the court for the umpteenth time before he called out Riko. "Hey Coach-chan! I think it's about time to start the drills."

"Alright!" Riko stopped on her tracks, quickly being followed suit by the other ten players. She looked at them briefly before shouting. "Line-up near Naruto-senpai and Teppei!"

The team, excluding Kiyoshi and Naruto, quickly filed themselves into a line and stood still on their places.

Naruto went in front of the group **,** cleared his throat and started. "Today were going to try and improve our offensive games with different drills for different parts of the game. We'll be working with our dribbling, free throws, three point shooting, mid-range, post game and passing game. Everything to do with your offense we'll do, and since we've focused on defense and the fundamentals for the past month we're going to use this whole week to improve the teams overall firepower."

Naruto paused and looked at Riko who nodded replaced him at his spot. "We'll be starting with three point shooting. Do you those cones over there?" The female coach pointed at the bright orange stationed at different spots around the three point line and a few others inside it.

Seeing the team nodding she continued, "What we're going to do is a Drive and Kick drill that'll help in our decision making and floor spacing and also not to be too dependent on Kuroko's misdirection. Both Naruto-senpai and Teppei will defend. The post players won't be required to practice this but I suggest you watch so can learn how to defend it as well." She then looked at Kagami who was about to leave the line."Kagami you're not exempted from this by the way. Naruto-senpai and I agreed that it'll be good if you can develop a dependable perimeter game."

"Shun, Kōichi, Junpei. You'll be the first trio." Naruto pointed out the three quickly.

The trio nodded with a determined expression as they approached the the area with cones.

"First, Izuki will be positioned..." Riko watched as Naruto positioned the trio to their respective places as the blonde and Kiyoshi placed themselves near Izuki and Kawahara while Hyuga was left open at the corner. She knew the drill would be a more effective way to improve their shooting in-game as compared to mindlessly shooting the ball. It was more dynamic and would only improve their teamwork. She looked at the remaining players who watched by the sidelines as Naruto instructed the three players.

"Hey!" She shouted at the other seven who immediately turned towards her direction. "You guys go to the other side of the court and do a mini half-court scrimmage. You can sit that out Kuroko and just observe them for the time being." She nodded in satisfaction as the seven quickly went to the other side of the court.

"You guys are working hard." Riko turned her head towards the source of the voice and saw the familiar face of the student council president.

"Uchiha-kaichou. It's surprising to see you here, you haven't visited the past few weeks." She long had accepted the fact that Sayuri, with or without her permission, would enter and leave the court as she pleased and she also didn't wanted to get to the bad side of the black-haired beauty.

"Finished the workload earlier today. Decided to just watch you guys train."

"Are you sure that's the only reason?" Riko asked teasingly.

"Why is everyone teasing me about this," Sayuri whispered to herself which Riko, fortunately enough, didn't hear. "Shut up please."

Riko laughed lightly at the flustered expression on the president's face. "Just kidding Uchiha-kaichou."

"You better be then," The Uchiha replied threateningly, causing Riko to gulp faintly. Seeing that, Sayuri's expression quickly changed to a friendly one as she asked, "I heard that the preliminaries in the other regions just finished earlier this day. Seirin's are next week right?"

"Yeah. We've been practicing a lot this past few weeks and Naruto-senpai's presence is practically godsend. He seems to really know how to effectively train the skills of the guys."

"That's because Naruto was trained by both his parents, who by the way are both famous retired athletes."

Riko was pleasantly surprised at the information but it did make sense to her. Like Naruto, she herself grew up watching his father train other people which helped her develop the ability to 'scan' the physical attributes of the person with only a glance. The information of course made her a bit curious at Naruto's family. "So he grew up in a family of athletes. That actually makes a lot of sense seeing how athletic Naruto-senpai himself is. But it makes me wonder who his parents is."

Sayuri on her side was actually surprised that Riko still hadn't figured out who Naruto's family were seeing that the girl had managed to research on Naruto herself beforehand. "Minato Namikaze, famously known as the Yellow Flash—Football legend. Kushina Namikaze a.k.a Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Hot-Blooded Habenero—WNBA legend. They don't ring any bells to you?"

"Minato Namikaze...Kushina Uzumaki...Wait they're his parents! Then his practically born to play sports. With genes like that..." Sayuri sighed at the reaction, having seen multiples times before whenever he accompanied Naruto and he was asked about his parents. That was probably the reason why Naruto didn't even bother telling them about his parents. He probably grew bored of seeing other people act so surprise whenever they found out about that peculiar information about him.

"I wonder if Naruto-senpai could get me an autograph from Kushina-sama..." Riko saw the face that Sayuri was giving her as a slight pink adorned her cheeks at being seen at such an embarrassing state. "Sorry about that Uchiha-kaichou."

"It's no problem. Anyways what we were talking about again before we went to talking about Kushina-obasan and Minato-ojisan?"

Riko racked her for a few seconds as she tried to recall their conversation before raising her face and looking at Sayuri. "Ah! I was talking about how effective of a trainer Naruto-senpai was."

"Oh, that's right. Hmm. I guess you could say that aside from his parents' help, Naruto really was talented at playing basketball. He showed the aptitudel when we were still very young. I think I told you this before, but he started playing when he was five years-old."

Riko nodded at the last information as she did remember Sayuri telling her that before. "I can imagine Kushina-sama being happy about that."

Sayuri gave Riko smile before replying. "She was. From Naruto's stories, she's actually still gloating about it to Minato-ojisan."

"They sound like fun people to be with."

"They are." Sayuri nodded with a knowing smirk. Riko stared at the black-haired beauty who opted to observe the teen males training and decided to follow suit after a few seconds. The two girls watched in comfortable silence as Seirin's basketball team practiced. Both of them knew just how important the next seven days for the team would be.

Seven days till the Winter Cup preliminaries.

Seven days to practice.

Seven days till they showed Seirin's Basketball.

Seven days till _his_ return debut.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

A short interlude chapter before the start of the preliminaries.

Till the next update I guess.


	4. Winter Cup Final League 1

**DISCLAIMERS: (See Chapters 1 and 2)**

 **Enjoy Reading!**

 **(Unedited; Un-beta'd)**

* * *

It was a cold night in Tokyo, the majority of the people were indoors either enjoying the warmth of their homes or grinding at their offices, working hard at work. But in one particular school, at a basketball court, a young man with shining blonde hair and deep ocean blue eyes was dripping in the wetness of his own sweat.

He had long discarded his shirt, opting to remove it than risk getting sick the day after. Tomorrow was an important day after all.

He watched as the ball traveled through the air in a perfect arc and slowly paced himself towards the basket as the ball found its' way to the bottom on the net, dropping right on his hands.

The three point shot was a shot he had been practicing for the past few years. His range wasn't as ridiculous as Midorima's but it was a very, very reliable shot whenever he thought the team needed a run to control the game. It was a part of his game that won him the National Player award for the past two years back in the US so it wasn't something a defender can neglect.

He dribbled the ball and jogged with it towards a few feet past the wing. He took a quick glance at the glass of the ring, threw the ball towards it and swiftly sprung towards the direction of the basket. The ball bounced-off the glass but was swiftly caught by Naruto mid-air who quickly twisted his body around himself and clawed it down the ring with finesse the moment he reached it.

"Don't you have an important match tomorrow?"

Naruto turned his head towards the direction of a familiar sweet voice as the beads of sweat crawled down his form. There leaning at the in a very, in his opinion, provocative manner. "I'm assuming you're done with your paperwork already?"

"Answer my question first you idiot."

"You know the answer to that already."

"Likewise, you already know my answer."

The two stared each other down, neither of the two allowing their eyes to blink. After a few seconds both students broke their stares as their mouths split into bouts of lighthearted laughter.

"So, how was your day?" Naruto said in a muffled voice as a towel rubbed over his face.

She idly noted the number of orange balls cluttered around the court before answering. "Tiring and utterly boring. We haven't hanged out much since your birthday last month because of your training and my student council duties."

"Let's hang out after the games tomorrow then, just you and me; like the old times."

"Oh my. How forward of you, Namikaze-kun." The way she had said that and teasing smirk that she tried hard to hide plastered on her face made her a whole lot more attractive to him. There he decided that he would not be outdone by his normally calm and cool best friend in _his_ forte.

He threw the towel on his hands back to his duffel bag and slowly approached Sayuri. He extended his right hand over her shoulder who he observed —in his secret amusement of the situation— was slightly tensed at what he was doing and sent his other free hand to softly caress her cheeks.

"W-what...N-Naruto..." It was taking her all her willpower to stop herself from being flustered and/or mad at Naruto's actions. She honestly wanted to strangle and kiss him so much right now. Him leaning to her face and exposing his very _well-built_ body wasn't helping her one bit.

She felt a puff of hot air by her ears as Naruto lowly whispered to her. "You don't know just how forward I can be, Uchiha-chan~"

"Keh, Naruto you're too close." Her voice came out too meekly for her liking and that ended up making Naruto grin as he straightened his back, moving a bit away from her and fetched his shirt from his bag.

Sayuri watched with a small flush on her cheeks as Naruto put his shirt on. She sighed inwardly to herself at the sudden reversal Naruto had done and was a bit annoyed at that as well. It always ended like that when they teased each other. Not that she didn't like the close contact cause she did but she didn't like being always the one to end up all flustered up.

"Ah, damn. I still have to clear up the court. Wanna help me out Sayuri?"

Despite the want to go home as soon as possible, Sayuri thought that not helping Naruto would be an okay consolation from being out-teased once again. "Hn. I'll think about it."

Naruto groaned with her answer. She isn't even going to lift a finger. "Damn it Sayuri," He grumbled, making Sayuri smirk. "I knew that I shouldn't have let the guys leave earlier without cleaning up their mess."

* * *

"Your left hand improve a lot there Kagami,"

Kagami made a side glance at Furihata before answering. "Hell yeah. I can even used it for stuff like eating nowadays."

"Did you perhaps stay up all night Komori?" Kagami blinked a few times when he saw the face of Naruto directly in front of his own before adopting a glare.

"When the hell are you going to stop calling my name wrong?!"

Naruto let out a small laugh and patted the redhead's back causing Kagami to drop his ball before scurrying away the redhead as he went ahead of the group. "Meet you guys at the bus!"

"The hell was that for?" Kagami gained an irritated look as his question was promptly ignored.

"What's that creepy face for Kiyoshi? You're grossing me out."

"Ah, sorry. Don't bother." Most of the freshmen looked at the two founders of the basketball club with a fascinated expression as Koganei joined in the conversation between the two. They were glad that they had fun people as upperclassmen as their conversation alleviated a bit of their tension and nervousness of the upcoming matches ahead of them in the day.

"Is everyone here already?"

"Naruto-senpai went ahead already Coach." Riko nodded at what Hyuga said as she then counted out the team bar the blonde-haired Senior.

"Hmm...we still have one person missing."

"Kuroko!" The freshmen chorused out.

"Um...I'm here."

"Gah! The hell Kuroko, where have you been?"

"I've been here from the start."

"That's a damn lie and you know it! Tell us the truth! You only came at the last minute!" Kagami accused the teal-haired boy who silently stood his back against the angry redhead.

Riko looked at the group as she shook her head in amusement before calling them lest they arrive late at the competition. "You guys are too noisy. Let's go already!"

 **—TGCB—**

"So today's opponent, Seirin. How are they?" The captain of Josei Highschool, Kawase Youhei, asked the team's manager.

"In simple terms, they're a team that succeeded thanks to a big rookie and it's only their second year playing competitively." Most of the players in the locker room looked at their own big rookie before glancing back at their manager. "Although it's amazing that they've managed to get to the prelim finals this year and last year that's all they have. Our biggest concern is their rookie Kagami Taiga. But based on their summer videos from the finals of the Interhigh prelims, Seirin has a fatal weakpoint."

The members of the Josei basketball club watched silently as the manager drew up a five dots in what looked like a basketball court on the whiteboard in front of them. The manager encircled the two dots inside the poorly drawn arc and continued. "As I was saying, Seirin as a team lacks post presence and altitude. Aside from their rookie, there aren't any athletic bigs in their team. In short their inside is extremely weak."

The captain nodded at their managers analysis as he glanced at their own rookie who was still busy reading a porn magazine. "We'll unleash our big rookie too if that's the case. I'm sure Narumi would be more than a match against that Kagami guy."

 **—TGCB—**

Naruto looked at the audience with an unusual expressionless face as he scanned through them looking for a particular set of people. It was refreshing change of scenery to him, as many of the people inside the court barely recognize him. Back in the States, a lot of people would usually have pictures with him (mostly basketball fans and a few fangirls) or would be scouts from the big name colleges and universities or even NBA teams at times. Here people wouldn't even give him a passing glance, at least that's what he thought.

A big grin grew into his face as he saw the Uchiha family along with his grandparents sitting near the front rows.

He locked eyes with Sayuri who gave him a smile and a small nod. The black-haired beauty mouthed him something to which he deciphered as a 'Good Luck' before smiling back at her and waving at the group.

"Good Luck Naruto-kun!" Mikoto shouted at her godson.

Naruto gave her a thumbs-up before shouting back. "Thanks Mikoto-obachan!"

"Now, we'll begin the match Seirin High and Josei High! Both teams, please line up!" The players and the officials who would officiate the game quickly assembled themselves as the announcement of the head referee rang across the court. Fans and supporters of both teams was abuzz along with people who simply came to watch an entertaining basketball match between two good basketball teams. Naruto gave the Uchiha's and his grandparents one last nod before he skidded towards the center of the court with rest of his teammates.

"You look really happy today Teppei. Are you really that excited?" Naruto asked nonchalantly although he couldn't blame the person. If he were in the same shoes Kiyoshi he would be happy as well.

"Tell me about it. He's really creeping me out." Hyuga commented, deciding to give his own two-cents.

"It's my first match in a looong time so I can't help it." A goofy smile threatened to come to his face but was swiftly stopped by Hyuga.

"Hey! I know you're really happy about the match but the team would be troubled if you're stuck sightseeing. You came back to win, you hear that!"

"Loud and clear." A few seconds later, Kiyoshi was smiling weirdly, to the rest of the teams opinion at least, again.

"Heh, I'm a bit excited too. But I'll have to wait before I get to play."

Riko looked at Naruto briefly with uncertainty before she decided to just ask away. "Are you sure you only want to play in the fourth quarter for this game? I can field earlier if you want you know."

Naruto shook his head at her question. "Nah. I'll let the others gather more experience. Besides, I've been playing competitive hoops since middle school. And anyways, we practiced really hard the past month, it would be a waste if they didn't play as much."

"All right then if you're really that sure."

Naruto nodded. "I am."

"Will both teams' starting line up assemble in the court. The rest of the players and the coach may sit down at their respective benches." Naruto along with the other players of both teams went to their respective benches.

"Salute! Let's play a clean match!"

The blonde silently watched in amusement as the one of the players of the opponent's team openly mocked Riko's 'sexiness'.

"Sheesh, he's practically signing Josei's death warrant." As he said that, the head referee threw the ball in the air signalling the start of the game.

 **—TGCB—**

"Ho, so they've begun already."

"Seirin vs. Josei, who do you think will win Imayoshi-senpai?"

"Who knows—their strengths are equal but for Seirin, Josei is their worst match-up. Seirin's inside is really weak while on the other hand, Josei's selling point is their powerful inside. Especially with their newest recruit, his quite powerful physique wise. Seirin's gonna have a tough time with them." Sakurai nodded in acceptance of Imayoshi's logic.

As the two entered the court and join the roaring fans of both teams, the score that greeted them at the scoreboard shocked them.

 **17 - 2**

"This is not what I expected..." It really wasn't. The captain of Tōō did not expect the match to be so one-sided in favor of Seirin, in fact he was expecting the game to be a close one and slightly in favor of Josei.

"It makes me wonder how Seirin improve that much in a matter of months..." His eyes glazed over the court, inwardly observing and accounting for the players of Seirin had on and off the court. Then he saw two peculiarities that had him shocked to his core, especially one blonde in particular.

"Sakurai, could you call Momoi and tell her to come here immediately and bring a camcorder with her."

"A-ah, sure...but why?" Sakurai said with a mix of curiosity and uncertainty.

Imayoshi was silent for a minute before he answered Sakurai. "I think Seirin just became the team to beat in the Winter Cup."

Sakurai seemed shocked from the Tōō captain's proclamation and couldn't help but question the logic behind it. "How could you say that captain? I don't see anyone on their team that could possibly beat Aomine or any of the Generation of Miracles for that matter one-on-one."

"There's two reasons behind that actually," Sakurai was even more shocked that Imayoshi actually had to logical reasoning behind what he said. Though he did not like to brag, he knew that Seirin was far from being able to compete with teams like them especially when one considered how their team trashed Seirin during the last game between the two teams. "Do you see that guy, the one with the number seven on his back."

Sakurai fixed his gaze towards the number seven guy his captain was pointing out and watched him carefully. "Slow...Isn't the timing of his shot abnormally slow?"

"Quite. Kiyoshi is an oddball of a center. He possesses the pass sense of a guard, as well as the ability to shoot the ball off the dribble. A lot of teams have trouble playing against him and the main reason for that is that huge hands of his. With the way he holds the ball with that hands of his and his unusually slow release, Kiyoshi has the ability and option to whether to shoot or pass the ball. It's useless to predict his move as he'll just predict yours, in short he has what we call the 'Right of Postponement'. His one of the five people that if the Generation of Miracles we know now hadn't been born, they would have been called the Generation of Miracles."

Now that Sakurai thought about it, the Kiyoshi guy actually looked a bit familiar. "But if Seirin had that kind of a player why didn't he play against us?"

Imayoshi gained a contemplative look as if he was remembering something and then looked at the court as he replied, "I heard that he got a major injury last year that stopped him from playing for a long period of time. If you've haven't heard before, Seirin actually reached the final league of the preliminaries last year with a team of freshmen before they were tossed out the tournament. He was a major part in it."

"What's the second reason?"

"You see that tall blonde guy seated at the Seirin bench?"

"Yeah."

"He's the second and main reason why I think Seirin is going to be the team beat when the Winter Cup finally starts."

Imayoshi looked at Sakurai who seemed _really_ shocked by what he said just now. If he wasn't shocked beforehand he was certainly shocked now. "...How good is he?"

Sakurai saw his captain actually grimace for the first time since he joined the team and seeing that made his bones chill. "I don't think even Aomine can beat him one-on-one unless he enters _that_ and Aomine's suppose to be the most talented among the Generation of Miracles. But individual play isn't even the main selling point of his game, far from it."

"Then what is?"

"Naruto-senpai's ability to make other players better with his game was what brought Teikō the two championships they had before the Generation of Miracles came in."

Imayoshi turned to his back when he heard the familiar voice of the Generation of Miracles' and their teams current manager. "You got here fast Momoi."

"I actually went on my own here when I couldn't convince Aomine-kun to come, my senpai from middle school messaged me that someone interesting is going to show up here."

"I'm guessing the interesting person you were told about was Namikaze-san then?"

Momoi nodded. "Yes. Anyways, as I was saying, Naruto-senpai's basketball philosophy is the polar opposite of the Generation of Miracles and that's what me and Tetsu-kun think makes the gap between him and the guys."

"To add to what Momoi said, Namikaze-san there is extremely gifted in both skills and physique. His much taller and bulkier than Aomine-kun but is just as agile as he is. His court vision is also off the charts, far more superior than mine at least. And then there's his shooting and athleticism. I don't think we've seen many people who graced that basketball court with as much talent as he has here in Japan. I know that from first hand experience."

"You've play with him before?" Momoi asked with a hint of curiosity. Although she'd already watched him play when he visited Teikō three years ago, she was a bit curious on how good he was before that.

"Yeah, we were both freshmen at the time. I don't think I've ever felt as humiliated and useless during that game."

Both Sakurai and Momoi was inwardly surprised by the very short yet impactful story of the team captain. It spoke volumes of Naruto's skill and talent coming from someone as prideful as Imayoshi.

The trio was permeated by an uncomfortable silence as they took their seats around the middle of the rows. Momoi quietly set a number camera recorders on tripods and sat with the other two.

The three watched as three quarters went by quickly. Seirin easily took control of the game, dominating the first three quarters by quite a big margin.

Momoi's mind was in overdrive. She was trying to figure out what kind of training regiment Seirin did in order to improve that much in a such short period of time. She had guessed that Naruto's appearance had something to do with their rapid growth but she couldn't give exact figures and methods on what they did to improve that dramatically. She did observe however that Seirin's defense improved tremendously compared to what they showed during the summer.

Looking at the bench of Seirin, she could see the slight physical changes of their players, even Kuroko looked more in shape than compared to before. Her eyes scanned their bench and went wide-eyed when she saw Naruto stretching his legs.

"I think he's going to play in the fourth quarter. But why insert him now...?" Momoi voiced out. With the current scoreline **(103 - 39)** , she wouldn't show other opponents that they had another secret weapon aside from the ones already known. It would be just a waste.

"I think they're going to make a statement. The entire starting line up of Seirin are wearing t-shirts over their jerseys already. Previously they only had one or two of them resting every now and then but now the whole starting line up. I think they know that we're watching."

"Hey Momoi-san, Imayoshi-senpai aren't those people from the other schools—"

"That have the other members of Generation of Miracles! Yes, you're right Sakurai-kun. They're probably scouts or managers like me, they're even holding out camera recorders."

"It seems you're not the only one who's been notified. I'd say that his actually going to showboat with all the people here." Imayoshi commented. "Let's see how much better you got, Naruto Namikaze-san."

 **—TGCB—**

"Yosh! I can finally play!" Riko and the rest of team smiled at the enthusiasm their senior was showing. Their morale was at an all-time high going into the fourth quarter and it would most likely increase before the first game ends.

"Damn it! I still want to play! I didn't get to do much during the game because of those pesky double teams."

"Cheer up Cagali! The reason we're leading this much was because of your drawing of double and triple teams, isn't it?"

"Tch, whatever. Just kick some butt out there for me."

"Sure thing! Come on team let's go!" The freshmen along with Koganei cheered as they followed the tall blonde to the court in high spirits. Josei on the other hand...

"The fuck. They're sitting their whole starting line up?!"

"Are they really signing us off already?!"

"Damn those Seirin bastards." The coach muttered to himself angrily. "I don't care if we're down big, crush those scrubs with all you've got!"

Naruto whistled at the sudden change of demeanor of the other team. He thought that they've already given up during the last quarter but it seems that sitting the whole starting line up only made them more fired up. "Damn, they're really fired up."

"Not surprising. They probably think we're underestimating them." Koganei stated cheerily.

"But we're not. I'm finally going to play, am I not?"

"You forget, Naruto-senpai. They probably don't know you or haven't remembered you yet."

"And why the hell not? I'm pretty sure that I'm a pretty memorable person. Let's face it, they aren't many tall blonde blue-eyed people here in Japan."

"...That actually makes a lot of sense. Maybe they haven't played with you before?"

Naruto seemed to agree with that notion as he nodded with rigor at that. "Yup. That's probably it."

"All players to the court!"

With the announcement of the officials, the players quickly positioned themselves at the court as Koganei and Naruto got ready for the inbound.

After receiving the ball from the referee, Koganei threw the ball weakly at Naruto's direction who in turn let the ball roll up the court before swiftly picking it up as it reached the half-court line.

A guard, Josei's captain, immediately closed the gap between the two of them and glared at the blonde. "Are you seriously going to bring up the ball?"

"Yup." Naruto nonchalantly replied, popping the 'p' sound at the end.

"Che, you guys are too arrogant. I don't think you could even dribble that ball properly."

Naruto raised a brow at the taunting of Josei's captain but said nothing as he observed the movement of his much smaller opponent. He dribbled the ball high waiting for his opponent to make an action to steal and when he saw the guy slightly jerk forward he took full advantage.

Kawase's eyes widened as he stumbled down to the floor. Naruto quickly raced passed the fallen shooting guard and quickly penetrated through the inside of the arc courtesy of a solid screen from Fukuda that the rookie from Josei fell to. Seeing that the post was clear, Naruto jumped from the paint, spun his body and jammed the ball down the hoop.

"Holy shit! Did he really just do a three-sixty in a half-court offensive set-up!"

"Who's that tall blonde guy with the number nine shirt?!"

"N-no way! Is that really him? I thought he disappeared a few years ago..."

"Damn."

Naruto smirked to himself as heard the reactions of some of the people from the crowd. It was quite entertaining to hear the reactions of people who've never seen him play before. He sent a playful salute to the general direction of Sayuri's group and quickly went back to defense but not before praising Fukuda for the screen. "Nicely positioned back there Hiroshi! Keep it up!"

"Thanks senpai!"

Nodding his head, he saw the guard from before glaring at him before throwing him a grin. "You believe me now?"

"Hmph. Who the hell are you anyway?" The teen grumpily asked.

Naruto gave him a confident smirk. "Naruto. Namikaze Naruto." His smirk grew bigger when he saw the shorter teen's eyes widen at his name.

 _They're probably gonna respect me now._

"W-wait what?!"

"Nothing. Just keep your eye on the ball." Kawase was confused by what he said for a brief moment but once again widened his eyes when the blonde in front of him suddenly disappeared. He quickly turned around only to see the blonde man already jogging back to their side of the court and his teammates inbounding the ball.

"Keep your head in the game man. Let's enjoy this game as much as we can."

Kawase and his team never recovered after that.

The quarter ended with Josei not even scoring a point.

* * *

"Kise, I want you to train harder this next next month."

"But Captain, I'm already training harder."

"Then try harder. We need to get better fast or else Seirin is gonna eat us up if we meet them again the Winter Cup."

"I'm sure we can handle whatever Kagami and Kurokocchi would throws at us."

"No it's not them."

Kise narrowed his eyes. Who else does Seirin have aside from those two? "Then who?"

"Namikaze Naruto." Kise widened his eyes at the name. He heard of that name multiple times before from his teammates back in Teikō. Just who was he to strike such fear on a person like his captain?

* * *

"Atsushi,"

"What is it Muro-chin?"

"The coach says he has package for you. It's a videotape from a person called Momoi Satsuki."

* * *

"I heard from some of the members of the second string that there's a number of people new in Seirin Takao."

"They did. They say that the first person was the Iron Heart, Kiyoshi Teppei. The other one, they didn't recognize but the freshmen said that he was incredible. Tall, blonde and blue-eyes. You know anyone like that?"

Midorima narrowed his eyes at the description.

He knew that person.

It wasn't good news for Shutoku.

* * *

"Captain, our manager just arrived from the Tokyo pre-finals."

"I see."

"He looked like he has some bad news."

Akashi Seijūrō raised a brow at the claim.

"Why?"

"He says someone from your previous school returned to Japan."

* * *

Aomine Daiki just woke up from his nap. Rubbing his eyes groggily, he lifted his body up and stared at the empty roof in front of him. His surroundings was already dark so he assumed that he slept through most of the classes.

"Aomine-kun." The ace of the Generation of Miracles looked to his back and saw his pink-haired childhood friend looking at him with a serious expression.

"What do you want now Satsuki?"

"Nothing much. I just want you to watch this." She threw a him a black-colored object with a lens and a retracted screen. A camcorder, he concluded.

"What the hell is this for?"

"Just watch it." She said with finality before leaving him alone once again the rooftop.

Shrugging his shoulders, Aomine decided to follow what she said.

Looking at the screen of the camera, he saw the familiar looking uniform of Seirin and raised a brow at it. He had already played with Kuroko's damn team so he was wondering why Momoi wanted him to watch it. Deciding to just play it lest Momoi nagged him to death again he pressed play.

A smile started to form on his face as he watched through the video. It grew and grew until he reached the end of the video and etched his face was probably the biggest smile that he had in years.

"So _you're_ back."

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

As you may have noticed, I'm not going much in-depth in the basketball games so far. That's intentional. The next two or three chapter will feature the games against Seishinkan (which I'll also be glossing over), Shutoku (I'll be going into detail with that) and Kirisaki Daichi (also in detail).

That's all for now.


End file.
